Category Archives: plant profiles

My first encounter with Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Goldquelle’ was in front of my great-grandma’s garage. The mass of five foot tall, cane-like stems bearing sizzling, double yellow flowers towered over me and drew an unfamiliar phrase from my lips: “What the hell is that?” In rural Stratford, Iowa grew this unfamiliar plant whose presence I had […]

One of our most beautiful and elegant native lilies rarely appears in American gardens. Lilium michiganense or Michigan lily is native to much of central and eastern North America calling prairies, savannas, and woodland margins its home. I have monitored several colonies in wild areas not far from my home in southwest Iowa for about […]

“This unusual and beautiful violet was the first of the American violets to awaken the admiration of the European botanists.”–Viola Brainerd Baird in Wild Violets of North America1942. A virtuous plant worth noting is the Bird’s foot violet or Viola pedata. This little gem of dry prairies makes a spectacular garden plant not only for […]